Grow A Small Business Podcast In 2020 at the onset of COVID, sensed a massive shortage of medical-grade hand sanitizer. Initially offered advice to the government, ended up supplying 60,000 liters of hand sanitizer and 2M face masks all over Australia. (Martin Quinn)
In this episode, Troy interviews Martin Quinn, Director of M2 Logistics. He's based in Launceston, Northern Tasmania, Australia. The team have co-ordinated manufacture and distribution of over 100,000L of medical grade Hand Sanitiser. Later on Tasmanian Hand Sanitizer.
Martin together with Matthew Will and Charles Beaumont formed M2 Logistics in April 2020 at the beginning of the COVID outbreak. He got the sniff that the state government was starting to run out of medical-grade hand sanitizer throughout the hospital system sensing a massive shortage. Martin, having worked in a pharmacy doing a lot of manufacturing, he figured he can be of help offering his expertise in what to do. However, the government wasn't interested in that and wanted to purchase the product outright from them instead. They now also provide a wide range of cleaning and sanitation products as well as Personal Protective Equipment. Since inception they have supplied over 2,000,000 face masks to customers all over Australia.
The wake up call for him when he still had his pharmacy was when his kids were playing soccer while the parents thought his wife was a single mum, because he was never there. Martin believes, in business, it is beneficial to get people with completely different skill sets.
This Cast Covers:
- How the business was started during the COVID outbreak
- Having been out of work for probably two or three years having sold the pharmacies
- How the connections he had were instrumental in starting the business
- Being lucky they were able to fund the business when they asked for 50% upfront deposit from government
- The government request of 60,000 liters of of hand sanitizer instead of just a few hundreds expected
- Started conversations with essential oils in Tasmania when they noticed people often stick their nose in their hands after rubbing hand sanitizers because some of them smell like complete shit
- Developing their own hand sanitizer based from their experience which is now being used in Sapphire - a very premium invested boutique hotel in the world
- The government request of 60,000 liters of of hand sanitizer instead of just a few hundreds expected
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Additional Resources:
Quotes:
"Don't try and find a carbon copy of yourself and think that that's going to work because you're just duplicating yourself, and, and you're not giving yourself a broader spectrum of skills." — Martin Quinn
"People can get very emotionally attached to a small business, but if you get the opportunity to exit and the price is right, then I think you've just got to give some serious consideration." — Martin Quinn
"Everything has its timing." — Martin Quinn
"We were conscious of not over-promising and delivering, I think it's a recipe for disaster." — Martin Quinn
"Everyone's got to be on for the journey. If they're not, then it's just not going to work." — Martin Quinn